the case of the common snapping turtle
Chelydra serpentina 
the case of the common snapping turtle
Chelydra serpentina
Herpetofauna species suffer vehicle collisions at an alarming rate in the North Country where thousands of frogs and hundreds of turtles are killed yearly on stretches of observed highway (Langen unpublished data). Wetland environments represent 15.3% of the landscape within our 976. 4 km² study site. Road-side barriers have been put up on both sides of a raod transect along Hwy. 68 in St. Lawrence County NY to test the effects that these barriers may have on mitigating herpetofauna mortality. Turtle species are at special risk to added loss in their population size due to their long life span and late maturation age. I worked closely with Dr. Tom Langen and fellow students to see how often the culvert that runs under Hwy. 68 is used by snapping turtles and painted turtles. I glued radios to turtle carapaces using epoxy and was thus able to track their movements. The main goal of the radio-tracking project was to analyze whether turtle population connectivity was occurring even with fences acting as barriers to their movements across the Hwy. as they traveled to the adjacent wetland. Two out of ten radioed turtles did use the culvert successfully and I hope future studies in this area will shed more light on how effective the culvert system is when adjoined with a road-side barrier installment. Feel free to learn more as you read my abstract entitled:
Culvert use by Chelydra serpentina to move between wetlands bisected by a highway
During the summer of 2006 I found myself surrounded by an amazing crew of turtle trappers, predation mappers, turtle nest hackers, shovel whackers, and dunkin' doughnut snackers. I stood in as the official turtle radio-tracker.
Michelle, Billy, and Josh show us the ultimate in wader style.
Typical day on the job:
6:15 am - pull myself out of bed and shovel in some cereal
7:30 am - load up the gear and drive out to the wetlands
8:30 am - record all herpetofauna road-kill on Hwy. 68 test transects, removing those I observe with a shovel
10:00 am - pursue radioed snappers with AVM Instrument LA 12-Q Radio-telemetry receiver and hand-held antennae (fancy)
11:00 am - assist other students with various projects at site
12 pm - drive back to Clarkson University & take some time out for lunch
1 pm - head into lab to process all caught turtles, gluing radios onto carapaces, measuring, and pit-tagging unmarked turtles
2 - 3 pm - enter data and read over journal articles on related turtle projects
Danyelle and Briita glue a radio onto a snapping turtle's carapace
Dr. Tom Langen & Danyelle attach a radio to a painted turtle's carapace
